Update Your ProfileAcademic Title:
Professor
Primary Appointment:
Pediatrics
Secondary Appointment(s):
Microbiology and Immunology
Administrative Title:
Director, Imaging Core, Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis (CBOTH)
Additional Title:
Professor
Email:
Location:
670 W. Baltimore Street, HSF III, 8th Floor
Phone (Primary):
410-706-4533
Education and Training
- University of Bombay, India, B.Sc. & M.Sc., Biochemistry, 1985-1991
- SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine, Ph.D., Biochemistry, Mentor: Dr. Mark O'Brian, 1991-1997
- Washington University School of Medicine; Postdoctoral Fellow, Mentor: Dr. Jonathan Gitlin, 1997-2002
- Translational and Functional Genomics Branch, NHGRI/NIH, Sabbatical, Dr. Paul Liu, 2010-2011
- Genetics and Molecular Biology Branch, NHGRI/NIH, Sabbatical, Dr. David Bodine, 2019
- University of Torino, Italy, Visiting Professor, 2021
Biosketch
I am a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis. The long-term objectives of my research program are to identify the genes and pathways responsible for heme transport and trafficking in eukaryotes which have remained poorly understood. More about our research is available at : https://hamza.umd.edu/
At the University of Maryland, I deliberately set out to uncover heme trafficking pathways in eukaryotes – which were unknown at the time. Our pioneering work with the invertebrate animal model C. elegans demonstrated that this roundworm is exceptional because it does not synthesize heme but rather utilizes environmental heme to manufacture heme-containing proteins, which have human homologs [PNAS 2005]. Using the worm model, my research group identified the first eukaryotic heme importer/transporter (HRG-1) which is conserved in zebrafish and humans [Nature 2008; Cell Metabolism 2013; eLife 2019; Nature 2022].
More recently, my group uncovered how heme is exported from the intestine to other tissues including the embryos by HRG-3 and ABCC5/MRP5 [Cell 2011; Cell Metabolism 2014], and how organs communicate with each other [Nature Cell Biology 2017]. Our studies not only identified homologs of heme trafficking machinery in humans but also in parasites such as hookworms, filarial worms, and Leishmania, which all rely on host heme for survival [Infect Immun 2006, PLoS NTD. 2009; PLoS Path. 2012].
Research/Clinical Keywords
Anemia; Heme; Iron; Porphyria; Leishmania; Parasites
Highlighted Publications
Pek RH, Yuan X, Rietzschel N, Zhang J, Jackson LK, Nishibori E, Ribeiro A, Simmons WR, Jagadeesh J, Sugimoto H, Alam MZ, Garrett LJ, Haldar M, Ralle M, Phillips J, Bodine D, Hamza I. Hemozoin produced by mammals confers heme tolerance. eLife, 2019; 8:e49503 (eLife Digest).
Sinclair J, Pinter K, Samuel T, Beardsley S, Yuan X, Zhang J, Meng K, Yun S, Krause M, and Hamza I. Inter-organ signaling by HRG-7 promotes systemic heme homeostasis Nature Cell Biol. 2017;19:799-807.
Yuan X, Rietzschel N, Kwon H, Nuno Da Silva ABW, Hanna DA, Phillips J, Raven E, Reddi AR and Hamza I. Regulation of intracellular heme trafficking revealed by subcellular reporters. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 2016; 113:E5144-5152.
Korolnek T, Zhang J, Beardsley S, Scheffer GL, Hamza I. Control of metazoan heme homeostasis by a conserved multidrug resistance protein. Cell Metab. 2014;19:1008-1019.
White C, Yuan X, Schmidt PJ, Bresciani E, Samuel TK, Campagna D, Hall C, Bishop K, Calicchio ML, Lapierre A, Ward DM, Liu P, Fleming MD and Hamza I. HRG1 is essential for heme transport from the phagolysosome of macrophages during erythrophagocytosis. Cell Metab. 2013; 17: 261-270.
Chen C, Samuel TK, Sinclair J, Dailey H and Hamza I. An intercellular heme trafficking protein delivers maternal heme to the embryo during development in C. elegans. Cell. 2011; 145:720-731.
Rajagopal A, Rao AU, Amigo J, Tian M, Upadhyay SK, Hall C, Uhm S, Mathew MK, Fleming MD, Paw BH, Krause M and Hamza I. Heme homeostasis is regulated by the conserved and concerted functions of HRG-1 proteins. Nature 2008; 453: 1127-1131 (Epub Apr 16, 2008).
Additional Publication Citations
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/16yopzeIfT/bibliography/public/
Awards and Affiliations
1987 Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Silver Award
2000-02 NIH Post-Doctoral Fellowship, NHLBI, NRSA
2001 Top 30 Outstanding Alumni, Canada World Youth, Montreal, Canada
2002-05 NIH Research Career Development Award, NIDDK, K01
2003 Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society
2005 Outstanding Invention, Eukaryotic Heme Transport as a Drug target for Helminthic Infections, UMD
2006 Junior Faculty Excellence Award, AGNR, UMD
2010 Best Inventor Pitch, Bioscience Research and Technology Review Day, Professor Venture Fair, UMD
2010 Kirwan Faculty Research and Scholarship Prize, UMD
2011 Excellence in Research, 44th Annual Alumni Awards Celebration, AGNR, UMD
2011 Faculty Excellence Award, AGNR, UMD
2012 Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
2012-16 Standing Member, Integrative Nutrition and Metabolic Processes Study Section, NIH
2017 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
2018 Chair, Gordon Research Conference, Chemistry and Biology of Tetrapyrroles
2018 Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility Fellow, European Union (Lund University, Sweden)
2019 Chair, Gordon Research Conference, Cell Biology of Metals
2022 NIH Director’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS) Lecturer
2024 CAPES Print -Fiocruz Visiting Professorship, Fiocruz, Bahia, Brazil
Professional Activity
Professional activities (advisory panels, editorial boards, consulting)
Grant review panels: NIH, Integrative Nutrition and Metabolic Processes (INMP) Study Section, NIH, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2016, 2020; 2011, AARA RC1, AARA R15, Special Emphasis Panel – ZRG1 EMNR-H, EMNR-P; NSF, Metabolic Biochemistry Study Section, 2003, 2004, 2006; Telethon Foundation (Comitato Telethon Fondazione ONLUS), Milan, Italy, 2003, 2006, 2015, 2016; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) UK, 2006, 2014, 2015, 2018; March of Dimes 2010; Research Foundation - Flanders (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen, FWO), Belgium 2012; Israel Science Foundation 2013; Barth Syndrome Foundation 2015.
Manuscript Reviewer: Aging Research Reviews; American Journal of Hematology; Biochimica et Biophysica Acta; Blood; BMC Biology; BMC Cell Biology; BMC Genomics; Cell Metabolism; Cell Reports; Cell Stem Cell; Current Biology; eLife; Eukaryotic Cell; Experimental Biology and Medicine; Experimental Cell Research ; Experimental Parasitology; FASEB Journal; FEBS Letters; Food and Chemical Toxicology; Frontiers in Pharmacology; Frontiers in Immunology; Genetics; Genome Biology; Hematology; International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug Resistance; Journal of American Chemical Society; Journal of Biological Chemistry; Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry; Journal of Clinical Investigation; Journal of Molecular Biology; Journal of Nutrition; Molecular Metabolism; Nature; Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews; Open Biology; Pest Management Science; PLoS Biology; PLoS Computational Biology; PLoS Genetics; PLoS ONE; PLoS Pathogens; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA; Science; Science Translational Medicine; Scientific Reports; The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; The American Journal of Physiology - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology; Toxicological Reports; Translational Research.
Editor: PNAS, eLife.
Editorial Board: eLife.
Founder and President: Rakta Therapeutics, Inc. (Incorporated: Sep 26, 2011).
Patent: Compounds for treating parasitic infections. Inventors: Iqbal Hamza, Fengtian Xue.
Patent number: 10227320; Filed: May 6, 2016, Date of Patent: March 12, 2019